April 12, 2018

Singed Sweets and Stolen Sea-Dwellers


Singed Sweets and Stolen Sea-Dwellers
Charred Chocolate, Freezing Fishermen, and Phantom Fish

1. Burn, baby, burn! Russian social media users are turning up the heat by demonstrating the flammability of various brands of Russian chocolates. Bloggers have enjoyed comparing how different chocolates – by brand and country of origin – fare when put to the fiery test. Following a public outcry, Russia’s consumer protection watchdog said it would subject domestic chocolates to lab testing. It all puts a slightly different spin on the idea of “a hot mess.”

2. Over thirty fishermen found themselves on thin ice this week (or at least, breakable ice). On the coast of Russia’s Far East, the ice floe that the fishermen were on broke off from land and floated into the ocean. The fishermen went out on the floe (about 500 meters from shore) despite warnings from emergency services. They were rescued, but two fishermen decided to stay behind, saying that the fish were biting. Hey man, whatever floe-ts your boat.

3. An unknown man made out with a reel haul this week: he stole 13 metric tons of fish. The man was disguised as a transport company representative and put the fish into his car and trailer. The fish, which cost over R6.4 million ($101,500), were stolen from Moscow but were originally destined for Nizhny Novgorod. Hopefully the police can reel him in.

In Odder News:

Photo: Иван Марков

  • The people of Kaliningrad found that the lamp posts on their new bridge were sneakily decorated with flower pots… oops-a-daisy!

  • Open the floodgates! Warm weather and piles of snow led to a deluge of floods across Russia

  • One friendly seal refuses to go back to the wild: it seems as though he’s seal-ed the deal on staying with his St. Petersburg human friends

Quote of the Week:

“From the very beginning, there was a sense that the files responsible for wildness were deleted in his brain. There was not even a hint that this program would ever be launched.”

— A fisherman describes Kroshik the seal

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Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

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White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
At the Circus

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

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